Here’s the situation: if the Lakers-Nuggets series goes to six games, Metta World Peace‘s suspension would end, and he would be able to appear in either Game 7 of the Lakers-Nuggets series or, more importantly, Game 1 of the Lakers-Thunder series if the Lakers ended up beating the Nuggets. Naturally, some people have been wondering if the Lakers should intentionally lose Game 5 against the Nuggets, because people will wonder just about anything, and Mike Brown had a predictable response to those wonderings. From ESPN Los Angeles’ Dave McMenamin:

Would the Lakers actually be better off losing Game 5 and extending the series against Denver so that World Peace would be in the lineup to defend Kevin Durant from the jump in the Thunder series?

“Two guys told me that (Monday), they said that the Twitter world is suggesting that we do that,” [Lakers coach Mike Brown] said after shootaround on Tuesday. “That we lose (Game 5) so that we can extend the series to get Metta World Peace back. I’m not even going to answer that. To me, that’s a joke. When they said that to me, I just laughed.”

I wish I had something profound to add to that, but I don’t. Brown is exactly right: the idea of intentionally losing a playoff game for any reason should be treated as an absolute joke. Not having Mr. World Peace in the lineup would make Game 1 of the Thunder series tougher for the Lakers to win, but you never intentionally miss a chance to close out a playoff series. Ever. Too many things can happen in a playoff series to look past a team, and right now the Lakers have to be thinking of the Nuggets as their only target.

i usually side with the ticketholders but not on this one…A mistimed re-entry of a starter can cause unnecessary chaos… it disrupts the team’s playoff flow… I would have ducked game 4 at OKC, so the lakers wouldn’t have to lose any home games… I respect Mike Brown’s old school philosophy but it’s just not applicable here…

The loss against Denver tonight is not a give-away. Nuggets deserved the win. But this is also a positive thing for the Lakers. not only the possible Game 1 appearance of Metta Word Peace at Oklahoma but the Lakers will learn from guarding Point Guards like Ty Lawson and what Andre Miller did tonight suggests that they will not beat the Thunder if they cannot stop Russell Westbrook.